FATHER: Egge Harms Rodenbeck
(1808-1873)
MOTHER: Bauke Garretts Alting
(1818-1894)
MARRIED: Claus Daniel Van Gerpen
(1849-1925)
April 11, 1872 (Pekin, IL)
CHILDREN:
Adeline ("Ada") Van Gerpen (Bruns) (1876-1957)
Martha Van Gerpen (Kendrick) (1878-1938)
Bertha Van Gerpen (Turner) (1882-1925)
HILDRETH (HILDA) VAN GERPEN (ANDRE/Jones)
(1894-1976)
Edgar Van Gerpen (1877-c.1877)
Daniel Van Gerpen (1880-1950)
Claus ("Clausy") Van Gerpen (II) (1885-1889)
Henry Van Gerpen (1888-1963)
Baptised May 20, 1850 in Uttum.
According to Nana, Oma came over from Germany alone in 1865, which would have made her 15 years old during the trip. She wasn't cast on the new shore completely alone, though; she had a brother already living in Pekin, Illinois, so she initially lived with him after coming to America. She married fellow Ostfrieslander Klaas (aka Claus) Van Gerpen, who had been raised in a Dutch-speaking German town not far from her own, though they never met until coming to America. Nana found that pleasantly ironic, but it really isn't all that surprising--European immigrants knew where those who left before them were settling, and tended to keep clustering in the same areas. Almost from the time of its founding, Hartsburg was a town that attracted Dutch settlers from Germany, as was the original Van Gerpen American home in Pekin, Illinois.
Her marriage ceremony was performed by one Charles Holtzkamp.
In September 2002, my cousin Philip Farmer traveled to Jennelt during a vacation in Germany. In the process he not only found the house where Oma was born, but also that there are still a substantial number of Rodenbecks (and Van Gerpens) living in the area.
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